Khaama: Taliban government authorities assert that US drones invaded Afghanistan through the airspace of Pakistan. They claim that Pakistan receives millions of dollars in return. In a meeting commemorating World Tourism Day, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, Political Deputy of the Taliban government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claimed that Pakistan had allowed the US to use
Economic Times: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that Washington would be providing Afghanistan with $327 million in much-needed aid. The aid comes as the country’s humanitarian crisis has continued for more than one year since the Taliban took over. Blinken issued a statement Friday last week announcing the additional $327
Xinhua: What Afghans say about U.S. aid to their country: -“America’s 20-year presence in Afghanistan had no results. All of them were here for their own interests.” -“U.S. gave the aid because of the expansion of its hegemony, presence and survival in Afghanistan. When U.S. left Afghanistan, it took everything away.” -“The U.S. presence in
FP: Omar Joya, an economist formerly with the World Bank and Afghanistan’s central bank, described the Afghan Fund as a “windfall” for the Taliban, saying it effectively pays their bills while relieving them of responsibility for managing an economy suffering from the political shock of the republic’s fall as well as natural disasters that have
8am: Taliban officials have called the release of Haji Bashir Ahmad Noorzai, known as Haji Bashar, as a sign of American goodwill and a “new chapter in the relations” between the Taliban and the United States. Haji Bashar is known in the media and political circles as the godfather of Afghanistan’s drug mafia. It is
popMATTERS: Matthew Heineman’s remarkable Retrograde—a National Geographic film showing at some festivals now and hitting theaters and streaming later this year—is one of the most unsettlingly intimate examples of this kind of filmmaking. Ostensibly, it’s a document of the last nine months of the Western-backed Afghanistan government in 2021. The film’s scope ranges from furious
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 19, 2022 ISLAMABAD — The Taliban Monday freed Mark Frerichs, the only American hostage remaining in Afghanistan, in exchange for a Taliban drug lord, Bashir Noorzai, who was serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told reporters in Kabul the prisoner swap between his
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 16, 2022 KABUL — Afghanistan’s Taliban Friday denounced the U.S. decision to transfer $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves to a Swiss-based trust fund, declaring it an “illegal venture” and vowing to impose financial penalties on entities that facilitate it. Washington said Wednesday it would move the previously frozen financial
VOA News September 14, 2022 The United States said Wednesday it is setting up fund in Switzerland to manage $3.5 billion of Afghan reserves to be used to help stabilize Afghanistan’s economy. A board of trustees will manage the Afghan Fund. The U.S. Treasury said the fund will “protect, preserve and make targeted disbursements” of
Michael Hughes: President Joe Biden remains on the defensive over the administration’s handling of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, more than a week after the exit’s one-year anniversary, as Republican rivals sharpen their knives seeing an issue ripe for exploitation ahead of the midterm elections. With control of Congress hanging in the balance in November